Press release

Germany and Serbia join top eight at Girls’ Youth World Championship

Germany was the big winners in the 2011 Girls' Youth World Championship on Sunday after they secured a place between the top 8

Ankara, Turkey, August 14, 2011 - Serbia (Pool C) and Germany (Pool D) completed the top eight frame at the FIVB Volleyball Girls' Youth World Championship after both teams secured their second victory on the thrilling third and last day of the first round held at Baskent and Ankara Arena Halls in Turkey on Sunday.

Serbia and Germany joined the 6 already qualified teams after the second day as Turkey, Poland (Pool A), Brazil, Argentina (Pool B), China (Pool C) and Japan (Pool D) proceeded to teams challenging for the crown Saturday night.

Although there were only two tickets remained for the quarterfinal stage, the last day of the first round demonstrated the most exciting action of the competition after most of the big forces meet for the top positions of the 4 groups.

A total of 16 teams have been split into 4 pools in the first round where the teams of each pool played a round robin with the top 2 teams qualified to play for the top 8 positions while the teams ranked third and fourth compete for the 9 to 16 brackets.

Turkey thrilled their hometown crowd with exciting 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-15) win against Pool A rivals Poland. Turkey ends Pool A matches on top with three straight victories improving their record to 3-0 and proceed to Pool E of the second round. Poland dropped to 2-1 to finish second and join Turkey to the top 8 frame in Pool F.

Supported by more than 4.000 spectators the 5th world ranked Turkey overwhelmed the court specially in the third set when Poland players committed a lot of mistakes after losing the control on the match.

Turkey’s captain Damla Cakiroglu efficiently led her team scorers with 12 points while Poland’s Ewelina Janicka was the best in her team with 8.

“Poland is a really strong team and thanks to them, we are happy to win today." Turkey Captain Said. “In the second round we have to improve our performance and try to play better.”

Turkey Coach Sahin Catma was happy with the support of the spectators. “It is a team of spectators and players. It is very important that we had support of spectators.” He commented.

Egypt pulled off their first win over their neighbors Algeria 3-1 (25-19, 25-13, 20-25, 25-18). The victory improved Egypt win- loss record to 1-2 to finish the first round at the third position of Pool A and proceed to Pool G of the second round, while Algeria dropped to 0-3 at the bottom of the standings and play in Pool H of the second round.

Egypt’s middle blockers Aya Elshamy and Captain Farida El Askalany played the greatest role of that victory not only scoring a tally of 33 points of their team total score but also with their prominent role in blocking the way against the Algerian attackers throughout the net positions. Aya Elshamy was also the match scorer with 19 points each, while Algeria’s Captain Celia Bourihane was her team scorer with 15.

“I think this match was a little bit easier than the final of the African championship where we won hardly 3-2." Egypt Coach Ahmed Mohamed Fathy said.

Defending champions Brazil remained unbeaten after a straight-set win (25-17, 25-20, 25-13) over Argentina in Pool B. Mauricio Thomas’ team were dominant from start to finish in raising their record to 3-0. The young Argentineans fought gamely but could not deal with the power game and experience of the three-time title holders. Gabriela and Rosamaria led Brazil with 15 points, Valquiria chipped in with 9 points while Priscila Bosio scored 9 points for Argentina. Brazil will procced to Pool F of the second round while Argentina play for the .Brazil coach Mauricio Thomas: “We put a lot of pressure on the Argentinian passers to play an excellent block-defense game. We prepared well and were able to adapt during the match. At the end, I had the opportunity to give some new players the chance to play. Now we need to focus on the second round where a lot of strong teams are waiting.” Brazil captain Raquel added: “As we are neighbors, we are friends. That’s why we always like to play versus Argentina. We wish them good luck for their next matches.”

Mexico beat Slovakia in straight sets (25-21, 25-18, 25-14) for their first victory at the competition. Samantha Bricio paced Mexico (2-1) with a match-high 12 points. Ana Nieto added 9 for the winners. Miroslava Rehakova led Slovakia (0-3) with 9 points. Both teams will play for the 9-16 brackets.

“We experienced a difficult start today, but played better and better as the match went on”, said Mexico head coach Victor Garcia. “We won’t make it to the top eight round, but we’ll do our best in the classification round.” Mexico captain Alicia Castro added: “We were well prepared today. We followed the instructions given by our coaches, committed fewer mistakes than in the previous games and played with heart.”

Coming off wins against Serbia and Puerto Rico in their first two Pool C matches of the 2011 FIVB Girls Youth World Championship, China kept their momentum going with a 3-1 (24-26, 25-15, 25-21, 25-20) victory over fighting USA team in the pool closure show at Baskent Hall in Ankara, Turkey on Sunday.

It wasn’t an easy job for the 13th World ranked Chinese team as they lost the first set against the fighting USA team ranked second and they had to rebound back and win three successive sets.

China topped the pool with the clean sheet 3-0 to proceed to Pool E of the second round, while USA dropped to 1-2 and become the biggest outsiders as they will compete for the 9 to 16 standings in Pool G.

The Chinese big gun Ruoya Xu was her team best scorer with 20 points while Jordan Burgess was USA best scorer with 15.

“I am proud of all my players. The harder the opponents we play, the more we improve" said the USA Coach James Stone.

Serbia outlasted the fighting Puerto Rico team in the way to a straight sets victory (25-23, 25-8, 25-21) in Pool C. Runners-up of previous FIVB Girls Youth World Championship and 9th world ranked Serbia improved their win-loss record to 2-1 to proceed to Pool F, While Puerto Rico lost all games in this Pool, with record 0-3 to go to Pool H for the 9 to 16 brackets.

“I’m very happy. We won two matches in this difficult group. We had a good mentality and we wish to go on to the final.” Said Serbia Coach Milan Grsic.

Germany held off Pool D rivals Italy in a four-set thriller (31-29, 16-25, 27-25, 25-20) in pool D. Sunday's epic victory at the Ankara Sports Hall improved second-placed Germany's record to 2-1, while Italy dropped to 1-2 and finished third in the pool as a result of their defeat. Outstanding player of the match was German Susanne Besa with remarkable 24 points (18 in attack), while the best Italian scorer was Elena Perinelli with 15 kills. Germany added 18 block winners to their successful 2011 Girl’s Youth World Championship campaign.

“It was a very intense match; both teams had the chance to win”, said German coach Jens Tietböhl. “To qualify for the top eight round is a big success for German Volleyball.”

“We did not seize our chances in set one and three”, explained Italy’s coach Luca Pieragnoli. “I’m disappointed as the team showed a good overall performance today. It’s hard not making it to the final round.”

Japan beat Thailand in straight sets (25-16, 25-23, 25-20) in their third match in Pool D to improve their win-loss record to 3-0, while Thailand suffer a 0-3 record after three competition days. The Japanese were well organized and able to control their rivals from Thailand in almost all aspects of the game. With Japan 4th in the world and Thailand 14th, the favorites prevailed. The Thai displayed not the same power and precision as their opponents.

Aya Horie led the way for Japan with 13 points (10 in attack) while teammate Yui Asahi, a force at the net with several soaring spikes but unfortunately being injured in the third set, chipped in with 11 (10 in attack). Khatthalee Pinsuwan led Thailand’s scoring with 12 points (10 in attack) and was impressive both in her serving and attacking, but Jarun Niemtuptim's team paid the price for making too many mistakes.

“I’m happy that my team showed three good games so far”, stated Japan coach Ichiro Hanzawa. “Tomorrow we’ll have a rest day to make some adjustments during practice, and then we’ll look forward to the next competition round.”

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